19-06-2002 00:44									#31
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quote: Originally posted by Mikel I think assimilation occurs far too quickly in Civ. If you look at the home nations they all still have their own national identity after 300 years of the Union. Outwith that you find many more people that still claim to be Irish or Scottish despite the fact that they belong to a nation that has long since ceased to be part of the Brittish establishment.

I do agree with you, assimilation does happen far too quickly in Civ3 (although my original suggestion of removing it altogether was....er....a little too harsh!).
But there is a difference between those people who have a strong cultural-identity but are not prepared to fight for it (such as the Welsh) and those with strong cutural-identites who are (such as the Catholics of Northern Ireland).

As you can probably tell from my posts in this thread, I am a great believer in using abstract concepts to simulate real world factors, and I think that Phil_de_geezer's idea of tying assimilation to the distance from the capital, and then if we only allow this under a democratic government, does simulate things quite well.
For example, if Britan had a harsh intolerant government, then I could well imagine the Welsh deciding that they would be better off on their own and rebelling. But Northern Ireland, being so far from the capital, has not been able to assimilate the Catholics.
Likewise, if Spain had changed to some sort of democratic government in say the 18th or 19th centuries, then there would have been time to assimilate the Basques, but currently that proccess has not had time to work.

I also agree with you about "devising a general tactic that can be used to play every game". For me it's switching to democracy, in every game, no matter how I intend to win. Because under a democracy I can raze citys, starve population, break treaties, gain extra economic benefits, and still conquer cities provided I keep my wars limited to avoid war-weariness. Why chose any other government?
That's why I suggested in an earlier post not allowing democracies to raze cities and only 'liberate' instead of conquer (disadvantages), but they can assimilate and already have better economies (advantages). With these ideas I would have to chose the correct government to fit my intended victory objectives instead of being a bleedin' democracy EVERY game!